After 14 years of operation, the Canadian Air & Space Museum prepares to close its doors for the last time after being served an eviction notice.

Chloe Petrohelos, 7, flies a Russian Antonov 2 Flight Simulator at the The Canadian Air and Space Museum, which closed its doors for the last time on Sunday.

By:Chantaie AllickStaff Reporter, Published on Sun Sep 25 2011

Volunteer John Kozak greeted visitors to the Canadian Air & Space Museum with a smile and invited them to sign a petition that sat at a large table by the doors to save the museum.

Housed in an 82-year-old heritage building, which was the original manufacturing facility of the De Havilland Canada Aircraft Company, the museum was served an eviction notice by its landlord Downsview Park on Tuesday.

But volunteers and museumgoers remain hopeful a solution will be found. An hour before closure, they were offering to book flight simulations and inviting visitors to come back soon.

Kozak is confident the museum and park will come to an agreement.

Seven-year-old Chloe Petrohelos is glad she got the chance to try out the flight simulator at the museum before it was gone for good. In an hour-long lesson behind the controls of a small plane, she got a taste of what it’s like to take off, fly and land a plane.

“It’s sad,” said her mother Audrey Clydesdale about the museum closing. “It’s an amazing place in Toronto that not many people know about.” If not for a deal offered on Kijiji, Clydesdale would have never brought Chloe in on the museum’s last day. She didn’t know the museum had been evicted.

After a week of back and forth discussions in the media and confusion over a reprieve offered by the Park, museum administrators realized on Saturday that the fight was in fact over. They have yet to make plans for the future.

According to Downsview Park board chairperson David Soknacki the eviction document delivered to the museum on Tuesday states the park requires “vacant possession (of the property) in six months.” The expectation is that the next few months will be spent packing, not operating the museum.

“They’ve effectively eviscerated us,” said museum chairperson Ian McDougall. “If we have no programs, we literally have no revenue.” The museum, a non-profit charitable organization, was more than $100,000 in arrears for overdue rent.

But the struggle to keep the museum open is about more than the site itself, its supporters say. “This is Canadian identity about ready to be demolished for a hockey rink,” said museum CEO Robert Cohen.

The museum and park have yet to meet to discuss details of the eviction. Cohen will meet with park senior vice-president of operations Bob Singleton on Monday.

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